Garlic and Parmesan mashed potatoes, salad, grilled lamb with mint pesto sauce (made with fresh herbs from our little garden), and red wine. I'm at the halfway point of my fiancé being out of town for 5 weeks and this is the first real meal I've cooked since he's been gone, because most of the time it's just too much trouble to cook for one person. This was quick, easy, and delicious though.

In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults. ~Thomas Szasz

I usually bread chicken in panko crumbs - wet the chicken with water or milk, flour it, then dip it in milk and then coat with panko crumbs. I usually toss in a lot of black pepper and garlic and a little bit of salt in with both the flour and the panko crumbs. I usually oven bake it then - just make sure to lightly oil the pan with canola oil. It takes the same amount of time to cook from fresh as it does to bake up frozen pre-breaded chicken. Panko crumbs have half as many calories in the same volume as regular breadcrumbs so the recipe is healthier in that sense, and unless you over-salt your breading, it should have a lot less salt than the frozen stuff as well. Not to mention, it tastes better*!

*According to all four of my most recent meat-eating boyfriends and one roommate. And me.

I had an assortment of deli salads for dinner - I couldn't decide what I wanted exactly so I just nibbled.

We made the same thing for dinner last night and lunch today. Grilled "cheese" sandwiches with fake cheddar, fake (Tofurkey brand) "Italian style turkey," spinach and mustard (plus tomato last night, cucumber today) on great, fresh rosemary sourdough bread. I was craving this kind of thing, but a vegan husband makes it tough. These substitutes were a great choice.

We had mini pretzels and New Belgium Springboard beer with them today. Perfect!

We'll be having fresh, grilled tuna marinated in ginger, garlic and soy. It will be served with rice pilaf and a salad of spinach, beets, orange and red onions. There will also be a glass or two of a nice white wine.

It's a special day here. We'll be having dinner during the running of the Belmont Stakes. Later in the evening, we'll be attending the Brooklyn Pride parade. That's always fun.